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AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

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Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#451

Post by gblargg »

sroussey wrote: post #346
bloppe wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're commenting on a post where a random guy provides this "nightmare of supplying and supporting an app" in his spare time, except he actually has to work around Apple's malicious obfuscation and standards non-compliance, so it would actually be way easier for Apple to do it themselves.

Except if you read the page this links to, for Android you need a rooted device only and you want Apple to make software with those requirements.

From what it says, a rooted device is required because Apple made them behave differently depending on the host. Apple wouldn't have needed a rooted Android device to support all the features.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#452

Post by gblargg »

sroussey wrote: post #344
angoragoats wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're responding in a sub-thread where others have specifically called out the fact that you can't get battery status from AirPods on non-Apple platforms. This is, to my knowledge, a feature that is supported natively by the Bluetooth stacks on every mainstream OS and requires no "apps" at all. For example, I can connect my Bluetooth mouse to my Linux machine and it happily reports the state of the battery. Care to…

The multi battery levels thing is native proprietary on every platform since there is no Bluetooth spec for more than one battery level and even that just uses uint8.

So they refuse to report anything useful rather than make use of the single battery level. Amazingly every other brand of Bluetooth earbuds manage to report a useful battery level despite them having a separate battery in each side.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#453

Post by gblargg »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #340
thewebguyd wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The fundamental question is whether Apple should be able to sell products with lock in. Unpopular opinion in these parts, but I think yes, they should be able to (continue) to sell products with lock in. Where Apple should get in trouble is specifically locking others out, rather than locking their own stuff in. If Apple wants to make a smartwatch that only works with iPhones, fine. What they shouldn't be able to d…

I'm not entirely sure if the distinction you're making exists. Let's say I'm Samsung and I want to make a phone that works with the Apple Watch. Isn't the Apple Watch locking me out? Apple is preventing third party devices from working with the Apple Watch.

If a company figures out how to make Apple products work with theirs, the line is between whether Apple modifies the firmware or future devices specifically to prevent this from working.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#454

Post by angoragoats »

inferiorhuman wrote: post #447
angoragoats wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I posted elsewhere in the thread, this is incorrect. The Bluetooth Battery Service spec allows for a single device with multiple batteries and individual battery reporting for each. [0] They even give the example in that doc of earbuds which are one “logical device” but two physically separate pieces, each with its own battery. As additional evidence, there are "AirPods-like" earbuds on the market such as the Sony…

The Bluetooth Battery Service spec allows for a single device with multiple batteries As of version 1.1 of the battery service which was finalized at the end of 2022. Given Bluetooth's track record, who knows what kind of interoperability landmines exist.

Man, HN really likes to make excuses for Apple.

No, implementing multiple instances of the Battery Service to report battery state for several batteries has been there since the 1.0 spec. [0]

This spec was released in 2011, five years before the first AirPods were released.

Doing what several commenters claimed was impossible has in fact been possible with native Bluetooth for a decade and a half.

[0] https://www.bluetooth.org/docman/handlers/downloaddoc.ashx?d...

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#455

Post by jjkaczor »

hmmm... so, I have been tempted to investigate Airpods for heading aid use, as the "medical" ones I have now are complete garbage for doing anything on my phone - they regularly forget their bluetooth sync status, they do not have enough volume to watch media on the phone - and when it comes to music, they are laughably horrible.

But... in my country, Apple Airpods are not certified as "hearing aids", so that functionality is blocked... Perhaps with this, I will have an Android phone in my future...

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#456

Post by jjkaczor »

happyopossum wrote: post #309
tripzilch wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially blocking hearing aids features for people who need those should be criminal

Hearing aids are highly regulated in many markets, as they are medical devices. Not building and getting certification / approval doe software to support every operating system is far from ”criminal”

Having recently purchased "medical hearing aids" - as a tech user, they are complete garbage and if I did not get a "friends & family" discount, they would have been returned months ago...

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#457

Post by jjkaczor »

Vegemeister wrote: post #430
gumby271 wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point is that selling a medical device that also requires you to use that vendors mobile device or lose access to them is just a little scummy. My motivation to keep using an iPhone shouldn't be that I'd need to buy new hearing aids if I left. Apple knows how this works, they don't deserve the benefit of the doubt.

A set of airpods + the Minimum Viable iPhone to configure the them to work as hearing aids is way cheaper than standalone hearing aids. Regulatory fetishism around "medical devices" is exactly what enabled hearing aids to become a racket and to remain one long after the relevant electronics became a mass-produced consumer product.

Plus - the medical ones are horrible to use with an iPhone - barely enough volume for watching media - and music has absolutely no bass... (plus, they regularly "forget" their bluetooth sync connections...)

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#458

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

sosborn wrote: post #448
raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it’s not part of the BT spec - how is Apple going to report three battery levels in a way that’s compatible with non Apple devices?

Again, that's what I'm saying. We are in agreeance but you really seem to want to argue.

You said when I asked which should get reported “Whatever is reported to iPhones. It's not an excuse to block non Apple devices from reading battery level”

Exactly how is Apple going to send information to none Apple devices using the BT protocol in a method that they can understand?

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#459

Post by monerozcash »

vee-kay wrote: post #450
monerozcash wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Apple has faced multiple fines for deliberately slowing down older iPhones without informing users, including a €25 million fine in France and a $41 million fine for deceptive marketing practices. The company admitted to slowing down devices to prevent unexpected shutdowns due to aging batteries, but critics argued it was misleading. These cases are much less convincing than they may seem if you just take a moment t…

In my experience, the only 2 mobile phone companies whose phones drain battery too fast are Apple and Samsung. Apple does this deliberately for older phones, whereas Samsung has this problem even for new phones. You will not find this quick battery drain problem in Motorola, Nokia, Oppo, Sony, etc. Their phones last several years even with ageing batteries. An 10+ years old Oppo phone I have, still holds almost full…

I don't think you can find any evidence of a Apple actually deliberately doing things to make batteries drain faster on older models.

That would either require hurting the battery life on all models or require distinguishable behaviours that only occur on specific models and would be relatively simple to prove through reverse engineering.

Apple has been fined for the throttling, but hasn't ever been credibly accused of actually deliberately taking steps to reduce battery life on older devices.

Re: AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem

#460

Post by inferiorhuman »

angoragoats wrote: post #454
inferiorhuman wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Bluetooth Battery Service spec allows for a single device with multiple batteries As of version 1.1 of the battery service which was finalized at the end of 2022. Given Bluetooth's track record, who knows what kind of interoperability landmines exist.

Man, HN really likes to make excuses for Apple. No, implementing multiple instances of the Battery Service to report battery state for several batteries has been there since the 1.0 spec. [0] This spec was released in 2011, five years before the first AirPods were released. Doing what several commenters claimed was impossible has in fact been possible with native Bluetooth for a decade and a half . [0] https://www.bl…

If you don't like the Apple device, use something else. It's not like a messaging platform where you'd need compatibility with other peoples' phones.

If you'd bothered to dig into the spec, v1.0 basically says do what you want. v1.1 defines a proper namespace and well known descriptions for multiple batteries. Apple did well to avoid the interoperability minefield.

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